The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is
taking Boost and PPS, an Optus subsidiary, to court over
contraventions of the Trade Practices Act in relation to their
prepaid phone cards.

This isn't an isolated incident. In March, the Federal Court
found that Tel.Pacific had misrepresented the benefits of its
prepaid phone cards. In May, Cardcall, owned by gotalk, was also
found to have engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct. It all
seems to get down to those extra charges that consumers are unaware
of when they buy these cards. They see a great headline rate and
are sucked in.

In today's program we ask whether, despite the court findings
against Cardcall, the Talk Tomato card is still an example of
misleading promotion. It seems possible to go in and buy the card
unaware of the complex terms and conditions which include:

All call charges rounded up to the next 5 cents

All calls incur 80c surcharge after four minutes. All calls incur a 80c or $1.80
surcharge after one minute

Calls are charged in blocks of one minute, followed by subsequent 10-minute periods

You'd have to admit, the Talk Tomato card sounds a bit shonky.
Suraj Tschand from PEC, who provides software for calling card
operators, has seen it all. He says it's a con too! Yet growing the
calling card business is clearly important to gotalk, who claims to
carry 20 per cent of all outbound calls from Australia.

So how do you keep this sector of the telecommunications
industry under control? On this week's Twisted Wire I talk to ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel, Phone Choice spokesperson Doug Purdie and Suraj Tschand, president of Parwan Electronics
Corporation (PEC)

Incidentally, gotalk recently announced a partnership with Tata
Communications that will see the Indian-based telco manage gotalk's
international gateway. A press release stated that, as part of the
deal, "Tata Communications will also co-brand prepaid calling cards
using gotalk's existing card products and distribution channels". I
hope the company checked the fine print.

What do you think? Do people expect all these extra charges? Do
you have an example of a confusing phonecard? Leave the details in
the Talkback section at the end of this post.

Phil Dobbie has a wealth of radio and business experience. He started his career in commercial radio in the UK and, since coming to Australia in 1991, has held senior marketing and management roles with Telstra, OzEmail, the British Tourist Authority and other telecommunications, media, travel and advertising businesses.